The Magic of “The Magic IF”
I was running a theatre workshop recently for the Lindley Players, Whitstable (and yes, it was marvellous darling!). The technique I was teaching was that of “Playing British Farce”. All was going swimmingly until, in a coffee-break, an anguished looking actor took me to one side. She explained that although she was quite new to performing she just loved playing farce. However, she had recently had a very bruising encounter with a ferociously strident and opinionated director. The actor, let’s call her Angela, was finding it difficult to “get into” the farcical character she’d been cast to play. She had explained to the director that the character was so outlandish, so very different to herself, that she couldn’t think how she could possibly pretend to be her. The director’s response? Well, he (for it was a he...) snapped at Angela that she must not “pretend” to be anything, but rather she must actually BE the character! He supported his bizarre instruction by referring to the work of the redoubtable Konstantin Stanislavski ~ the great Russian Theatre director, who did so much to revolutionise European acting and bring “truth” to performance via his rigorous acting “system”. Stanislavski absolutely insisted, ranted Angela’s director, that an actor must abandon “pretending” of any sort and entirely BECOME the character. Didn’t Angela, poor fool, know this?
Well no, in fact, Angela (nobody’s fool, by the way) didn’t - but what on earth could she say to her director, especially when he was quoting Stanislavski? How could she, a mere beginner, challenge the ideas of one of the greatest theatre practitioners of modern times? Yet, equally, how could Angela, a very rational human being, actually BE the character? (She very reasonably pointed out that she was, in fact, well... Angela - and that no amount of desperate application of a “system” - Stanislavski’s or otherwise - could truly rearrange her atomic constitution to the point that she actually became another person...)
So, how did I help our perplexed thespian? Easy. I simply pointed out that the director she had been talking with was absolutely wrong; he’d misunderstood what Stanislavski had said. Further, I explained, that not only is this misunderstanding horribly destructive to any kind of character development, but very, very widespread indeed. I was delighted, then, to put Angela right - and since she went away so bouncingly happy I thought it a good idea to make her problem the subject of my article this month.
So, if Stanislavski didn’t ask his actors to BECOME the character (and I assure you he didn’t - have a look at his first great book “An Actor Prepares
” if you don’t believe me) then what did he ask them to do?
Well, he asked them to employ what he called “The Magic IF”. Stanislavski entirely understood through his study (just as Angela did through her instinct) that it is, indeed, quite impossible for any actor - even the most gifted actor - to actually turn into another person. It is not, however, impossible to behave AS IF you are that person. Far from it. In fact it’s very easy - and fantastically creative. So, what exactly does the actor need to do?
Well, you start by wholly acknowledging that you really are NOT the person you are pretending to be in the play (sounds counter-intuitive, I know, but believe me this works). Next say to yourself, “Ok, I’m not Lady Bracknell - but IF I were then how might I behave?” And Ta-ra! ~ with that simple question you can leap straight into practically any character you are asked to perform. Bingo!
Not only is this approach fabulously simple and wonderfully effective - but it works WITH your intelligence, rather than against it. Consequently, I rate it as one of the most useful techniques I teach in my “Darling, You” acting workshops. There are, of course, all kinds of subtle developments and additions to this approach (come along to a workshop and I’ll show you) but the key idea really is that straightforward. And it really is magic - try it.
Oh, and if you want to achieve an even greater sizzle of “truth” on stage, then try uniting “The Magic IF” with “The GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES” (but that, perhaps, is the subject of another article...).
Ok darlings, have a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year (and IF, in 2010, you run into an ill-informed-Stanislavski-quoting director - well, you’ll know what to say now, won’t you? Magic!)
END
written by Paul Doust
